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Tropes
The Honest Trailers series uses many recurring tropes. 'Many of these tropes come from real movie trailers, for example the use of discontinuous montage, fast editing, voice over narration, and epic music. In particular, the ''Honest Trailers series uses many tropes found in the '''"In a world..." style of movie trailers, which was popular in the 80's and 90's. This includes the deep voiced male voice artist, narration that speaks directly to the viewer, direct introductions to characters and settings, and commands to prepare for a sensational or emotional experience. In addition, the Honest Trailers series uses many other recurring tropes. Some of these are parodies of typical trailer conventions (eg, the starring section), while others are recurring jokes (eg, the Alan raptor). This page gives an overview of some of the most notable tropes. Also included on this page are special episode formats and special runs of the series. If you're looking for a list of common tropes that Honest Trailers frequently highlights and mocks when they appear in other movies, try the TV Tropes page about the series. Tropes The Alan raptor The Alan raptor is a running gag in Screen Junkies' 'web comedy series 'Honest Trailers. The Alan raptor appears in two formats: a short reaction clip or as an easter egg. The short clip is of a velociraptor shouting "Alan!" originates in the film Jurassic Park 3. This moment is universally reviled and generally considered the low point of the entire Jurassic franchise. Several Honest Trailers cut to this clip for humorous purposes, usually to punctuate the point that however bad things seem, at least things aren't as bad as Jurassic Park 3. A hidden Alan '''is form of '''easter egg, '''depicting a velociraptor incorporated into the background action of a scene of a completely unrelated Honest Trailer. It usually appears in a comedic way, for example being decapitated by a guillotine during ''The Purge. See the main Alan raptor page for more information. Bewbs Bewbs was a running joke in the Honest Trailers, Honest Game Trailers and Honest Trailers Anime comedy series. The joke involved narrator Epic Voice Guy commenting on the presence (or absence) of breasts in films. Sometimes the purpose of the comment was to call out gratuitous shots of breasts in movies, but sometimes the purpose of the comment was voyeuristic. Voice artist Jon Bailey, who has a distinctive, humorous way of pronouncing "boobs" with an elongated vowel. His delivery of the word was so funny, the writers began including the word and other rhyming words in their scripts, such as 'tubes' and 'cubes.' 'Some ''Honest Trailers point out objectifying shots of the male body in films using the same exaggerated pronunciation, most notably "abs" and "balls." The bewbs joke was also used frequently in '''Honest Game Trailers and Honest Trailers Anime. The joke was gradually phased out as the writers moved away from that style of Sophomoric humor. See the main bewbs page for more information. Breaking the fourth wall The Honest Trailers series frequently breaks the fourth wall. While it is common for trailer narration to speak directly to the viewer, the Honest Trailers narrator goes further by openly acknowledging that he is a voice artist working for a comedy series. For example, the film 'Daredevil was so boring that the narrator fell asleep in the recording booth, while After Earth was so actively atrocious that he walked out of the booth in disgust. In addition, the narrator frequently makes mention of the struggles that the writers had when creating this Honest Trailer. For example, the Moana Honest Trailer mentions how difficult it was to find a Tokelauan translator, the Captain America: The Winter Soldier Honest Trailer mentions that the writers liked the movie but had to nitpick because they are supposed to be writing a comedy series. The narrator also frequently refers to YouTube viewers, and anticipates their reactions to episodes of the series, for example, when he expected commenters would dox him for making a Ghostbusters Honest Trailer. Epic Voice Guy Epic Voice Guy is the fictional character who narrates Screen Junkies Honest Trailers comedy series. Several voice actors have voiced Epic Voice Guy since the series’ inception in 2012. Jon Bailey is the longest running voice and has narrated Honest Trailers since The Lord of the Rings. Bailey typically appears in voice form only, however he has appeared on camera as Epic Voice Guy four times: Divergent, Boyhood, Mad Max: Fury Road and Insurgent. Unlike real trailer voice artists, Epic Voice Guy discloses personal information about his life while narrating honest trailers. He has discussed his childhood, his family, his marriage, his sexual preferences and much more over the course of the series. Epic Voice Guy frequently breaks the fourth wall and mentions that he is a voice artist in a recording booth. See the main Epic Voice Guy page for more information. Honest Title .]] An Honest title is a trope used in the Honest Trailers series. 'It involves giving a movie or TV show a humorous title that reveals its true nature. Honest titles are often puns and pop culture references. Honest titles are illustrated using motion graphics which mimic the style and typography of the original movie's title design. Honest titles appear at the end of an Honest Trailer, after the starring section. See the 'main honest title page for more information, including a full list of all honest titles used in the series. Meta twists The Honest Trailers formula is often given meta humor twists '''that mimic the style of the film it parodies. For example, the ''Honest Trailer for Memento'' was structured backwards, like the film. The ''Honest Trailer for Happy Death Day'' repeated the same run multiple times, a format also utilised by the film itself. The final third of the ''Honest Trailer for Transformers: Age of Extinction'' was narrated in Chinese, a meta reference to the film pandering to the Chinese market in its final act. The ''Honest Trailer for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse'' featured multiple incarnations of the Epic Voice Guy character from alternate dimensions interacting with one another, just as the film featured multiple incarnations of Spider-Man. Sometimes, these meta twists are more subtle, for example in ''Honest Trailer for The Wolf of Wall Street'' the narrator tries to use as many f-bombs as possible, to capture the spirit of the film. Metaphors Honest Trailers often use humorous poetic devices, especially similes and metaphors. These metaphors are often deliberately ludicrous. For example, the ''Honest Trailer[[Honest Trailer - Transformers: The Last Knight| for ''Transformers: The Last Knight]]' describes the action as ''"like two radio shacks doing Karma Sutra in a hurricane," while the Honest Trailer[[Honest Trailer - Aliens| for ''Aliens]]' describes the film's aesthetic style as ''"like a sex toy factory made out of scorpions." ''Typically, these sorts of comments are well received in reviews, for example ScreenRant wrote that the opening line for '''The Room Honest Trailer ("the sheer amount of suck will collapse in on itself like a dying star, and explode in a supernova of unintentional genius") was "strangely poetic - and arguably accurate." Mispronunciation A recurring joke in the series is that the narrator struggles with pronunciation. Epic Voice Guy has extreme difficulty pronouncing long names such as Wasikowska, Palahniuk, Postlethwaite, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Saorise Ronan, Denis Villeneuve and Yorgos Lanthimos. Additionally, Epic Voice Guy reads out misspelled comments verbatim. Epic Voice Guy has difficulty understanding people with foreign accents, especially if they are delivering plot-dense exposition. Also, he doesn’t understand roman numerals. The writers often admit that they use mispronunciation as a joke when they can't think of anything else to say. Stares Stares 'is a running joke in the 'Honest Trailers comedy series. The joke involves adding overly dramatic music to a montage of mundane, repeated shots from a movie. The joke originated in the 2012 Honest Trailer for the first Twilight film, in which overly dramatic music was played over a supercut of the characters staring at each other. The "stares" joke has been used in several other Honest Trailers including The X-Men Trilogy and Godzilla (2014). ''A variation on "stares" is "flares," in which the same overly dramatic music is played over a montage of lens flares in the ''Star Trek reboot films. See the main stares page for more information. Starring section Each trailer ends with a starring section where the actors are given silly names - often a combination of puns and pop culture references, especially references to other fictional characters, song lyrics, old TV shows and the actors' family members. The starring sections may also list common phrases, tropes and cinematic techniques used in the film or TV show. The starring section is one of the most consistently well-liked parts of the series. Suit up, Strap in In episodes of Honest Trailers, the narrator also speaks directly to the viewer and gives simple commands. The most commonly used commands'' in the ''Honest Trailers series'' are '"Suit up..."' '"Ride along..."' '"Strap in..." 'and' "Buckle up..." 'In particular, "Suit up" and "strap in" have been used so many times to becomes running gags in and of themselves. For example, "Suit up literally..." is a twist on the formula used to refer to movie characters wearing formal suits, for example in 'Every Christopher Nolan Movie. Likewise, the ''Honest Trailer Written By A Robot'' humorously subverted the trope, but saying "suit on and strap up..." Special episodes Career retrospective '''Career retrospectives are special episodes of Honest Trailers that parody a director's entire filmography. These episodes are titled "Every Director Movie." Career retrospectives differ from conventional Honest Trailers in that they focus heavily on highlighting recurring tropes. In addition, the writers often refer to biographical details from the director's life to humorously explain those tropes. Screen Junkies first conceived of the career retrospective idea in 2018. The Honest Trailers team wanted to satirize a Wes Anderson film to coincide with the theatrical release of Anderson's film Isle of Dogs, but felt no single film was preeminent enough to sustain an Honest Trailer ''on its own. The concept has since been applied to other directors who have received individual ''Honest Trailers for some of their films, however, the career retrospective format enables the writers to parody lesser known entries in their filmography. See main career retrospective page for more information Musical episode Musical episodes are episodes of Honest Trailers that include parody songs. Musical episodes typically usually parody musical films, frequently Disney animations. More than twenty musical episodes of Honest Trailers have been produced. Musical episodes take well-known songs from a movie and add humorous lyrics. These lyrics usually aim to reveal the true nature of the song. Musical episodes typically include subtitles/captions to assist audience comprehension of the lyrics. These subtitles typically change color as they are sung, in the style of karaoke lyrics. Musical episodes don't include full-length parodies of songs, rather, they include short snippets of songs, usually in a medley format. See the main musical episode page for more information. Vault episode Vault episodes are a trope used in the Honest Trailers series. Vault episodes parody movies released in previous decades, usually the 1980s and 1990s, and are designed to look like they were made in that same era. This includes mimicking the "In a world" voiceover style of '80s and '90s movie trailers much more directly, and using a VHS style introduction and visual effect. In addition, the writers only make pop culture or socio-political references that a person from that time would understand. These references are intended to create irony. In total, there have been four vault episodes produced. See the main vault episode page for more information. Special runs Blockbuster Summer Blockbuster Summer is a special run of comedy web series Honest Trailers 'that focuses of parodying blockbuster movies both old and new. Blockbuster Summer was conceived of so that the 'Honest Trailers writing team had could satirize many older, highly requested movies that they otherwise had no reason to do. Blockbuster Summer episodes begin with a special logo that shows popcorn piling up on the screen. The Blockbuster Summer title card was designed to resemble the corporate logo of the Blockbuster video rental store, which was successful in the 1990's and early 2000's. This reference creates nostalgia for the older movies selected during the run of episodes. See the main blockbuster summer page for more information. Fan Appreciation Month Fan Appreciation Month[[Fan Appreciation Month| (FAM)]] is a special run of comedy web series Honest Trailers which focuses on parodying movies requested by viewers. Viewers vote on which films they want the Honest Trailers writing team to tackle from a drop down menu of options. Films favored by viewers tend to be an eclectic mix of nostalgic favorites, blockbusters and outrageously weird movies. Fan appreciation month serves multiple purposes: it encourages viewer engagement, it enables the production team to make videos ahead of time to be released over their end-of-year break, and it gives the team subject matter during the month of January when there are traditionally few big theatrical releases. See the main Fan Appreciation Month page for more information.Category:Honest Trailers Category:Tropes Category:Running jokes Category:Satire Category:Parody Category:Meta